Monday, January 5, 2009

Bill Clinton's former chief of staff has been tapped to head the CIA under President-elect Barack Obama's administration, FOX News has learned.

Two Democratic sources close to the transition process say that Leon Panetta, who also previously led the White House Office of Management and Budget, is Obama's pick to replace Michael Hayden at the CIA.

Panetta is a surprise choice, since he has no experience in the intelligence world. He was a longtime congressman from California who also served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for the reversing course in the Iraq war.

He is just the latest Clinton-era official to be invited into Obama's administration. Obama's pick for chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, used to work in the Clinton White House, and a number of other nominees to key positions worked in the Clinton administration.

Panetta currently directs with his wife Sylvia the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California StateUniversity, Monterey Bay a university he helped establish on the site of the former U.S. Army base, Fort Ord.

FOX News' Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The key points: "Panetta is a surprise choice, since he has no experience in the intelligence world." and "He is just the latest Clinton-era official to be invited into Obama's administration. "

Obama's understanding of National Security is continuing to be questionable. See related.